Hello steemians

Another day, another amazing cycling adventure. Let me start by saying this, I feel like an idiot for have been living here for quite a while and only now I'm really getting to know my surroundings... all thanks to my bicycle.

So today I wanted to check out a road that I had spotted from far away, that looked really interesting. Curvy, with some insanely steep switch backs, trough the middle of some mountains. Let me tell you guys right away, it was absolutely magical.

The road was perfect, no cars at all, good tarmac, nice hills. The first 30 Klms I already knew them, afterwards, i started a descent filled with switch backs. Going along a water line that gave me the impression of being in a total different country, that is a interesting feeling to have just an hour from your house.

The water line.

This area is pretty much desert, no villages. We can spot a house here and there, specially from people that want to leave off grid. Actually there some well hidden hippies communities around here and we do occasionally see a van dweller parking somewhere hidden. I guess if you want to live a peaceful life, in a beautiful wonderful place, growing your own food and collecting your water, without having to deal with western society bullshit, this is probably one of the best places to do it.

Hippies tents.

Off grid habitation with lots of water, space and tranquility.

This loop circles the main summit of the Monchique mountain, the summit is called Foia. You can clearly see it on the map down below, marked with the triangle.

After you reached the north (the top on) part of the loop you start slowly climbing too Monchique village, approximately 18 klms, of continuous slow climbing going trough every corner of the mountain until you reach the top. Is the typical mountain road, which is not common at all in this part of Portugal so this was a complete wonderful surprise.

Some stone made house deep in the woods by a creek.

Typical mountain road.

It was an amazing loop, for sure this one is on my favorites, mostly because it gives me a non common road to reach Fóia summit. Fóia summit is the ride that everyone does at the weekends, cyclists, motorbikes, cars, etc. so avoiding the main busy road and going on this alternative is an amazing treasure to have.

Ride stats. Strava

Distance: 92.26km
Moving time: 3:50:37
Elevation: 1,581m
Average watts: 155W
Calories spent: 2,140kJ
Total time: 4:10:54
Average speed: 24.0km/h
Top speed: 58.3km/h

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